(12) εὖ γὰρ ἴστε ὅτι τοῖς μὲν ἰδιώταις οἱ λεγόμενοι λόγοι πρὸς αὐτοὺς 
 ἐκείνους τείνουσι καὶ ὀλίγους τῶν ἄλλων· οἱ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς βασιλέας ταῖς 
 δημοσίαις ἐοίκασιν εὐχαῖς ἢ κατάραις. ὅθεν ἐγὼ τὸν Πέρσην οὔτε τἄλλα 
 νομίζω φρόνιμον οὔτε ὅτι τοὺς τυχόντας ἀνθρώπους πανταχῇ διέπεμπεν,
 ὦτα βασιλέως καλουμένους, καὶ πάντα ἐκείνοις ἀκούειν ἐπέτρεπε, δέον 
φυλάττεσθαι τὰ βασιλέως ὦτα πολὺ μᾶλλον τῆς χρυσῆς πλατάνου, 
 μή τι δυσχερὲς ἀκούσῃ καὶ βλαβερόν.

(12) For rest assured that, while words addressed to private persons pertain to those 
men themselves and to few others, words addressed to kings are like public prayers 
or imprecations. For that reason I believe the Persian king was especially unwise in 
being accustomed to dispatch in all directions ordinary persons, King's Ears as they 
were called, and to entrust them with the responsibility of listening to everything, it 
being necessary to protect the real ears of the king much more carefully than the 
golden plane-tree, to prevent their hearing anything disagreeable and harmful.

Trad. anglaise : J.W. COHOON - H. Lamar CROSBY, Dio Chrysostom.  
Vol. IV. London, Heinemann, 1946